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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
SHE is a prissy, unemployed seamstress with a conveniently located boardinghouse room. HE is an emotionally-damaged, celibate ninja with a stolen sword and a dream. Will his dark secret prevent him from ever knowing true love? Or does the least interesting woman in the world hold the key to unlocking his heart? Will the subplot about Japanese thugs and Hawaiian revolutionaries ever make sense, even after it's resolved? 2.5 stars, rounded up because ninjas.
Ninjas!
Ninjas!
Probably a 3.5.
Laura Kinsale always writes exemplary damaged, imperfect, fully realised characters. She does it here again. Her books are definitely on the darker side, but never without hope. For this to be written in the early 1990s and have a hero who suffered horrific childhood sexual abuse, and a heroine who loves him not inspite of this, but because he's such a strong person, is wonderful.
The heroine might be my favourite of the Kinsale books I've read - she's resourceful, smart, and even though she grew up in sheltered circumstances and is sometimes naively innocent, she shows compassion and depth of character.
The relationship plot of this book was fantastic. The Ashland family made good secondary characters. The whole thing with the Japanese sword felt like an unnecessary tack on, which weighed down the climax. And we needed an epilogue!
Laura Kinsale always writes exemplary damaged, imperfect, fully realised characters. She does it here again. Her books are definitely on the darker side, but never without hope. For this to be written in the early 1990s and have a hero who suffered horrific childhood sexual abuse, and a heroine who loves him not inspite of this, but because he's such a strong person, is wonderful.
The heroine might be my favourite of the Kinsale books I've read - she's resourceful, smart, and even though she grew up in sheltered circumstances and is sometimes naively innocent, she shows compassion and depth of character.
The relationship plot of this book was fantastic. The Ashland family made good secondary characters. The whole thing with the Japanese sword felt like an unnecessary tack on, which weighed down the climax. And we needed an epilogue!
I like the very different setting of this book. I live in Hawaii, and I love the great way the author treated the history of Honolulu/the islands. The Japanese ninja subplot is a little bizarre. Both of the main characters are fairly annoying, and the author could have done a lot more (read: better) with them. However, I still found myself sucked in and finished this book fairly quickly.
Unlike "Flowers from the Storm," I was able to get through this book. I really liked all the detail, especially the sections that give keen insight into the Japanese migration to Hawai'i and how the culture influences the hero. I also like that despite what happens to the hero in the book, he maintains a love for the culture. Sadly though, the heroine goes from being very likable at the beginning to a naive caricature toward the end. While I didn't skim through this book, there's enough here to put me off of reading any other of this author's books.